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What do we mean when we
talk about creative coding?
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What do we mean when we
use the term creativity?
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You might have at some
stage though of yourself
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as being creative, perhaps
your friends and family
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have thought so to.
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Perhaps you also have
friends that are creative.
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According to this model
it is the individual
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who can express themselves
in words, images or music
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that is creative.
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However, creativity is much more
than the individual expression.
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Creativity is 'to bring into
existence something genuinely
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new that is valued enough
to be added to culture.'
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In 1988, psychologist Mihaly
Csikszentmihalyi developed
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a systems approach to
the creative endeavour.
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Instead of asking 'what is
creativity?' Csikszentmihalyi
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questioned the assumption that
creativity is found in the mind
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of the individual to ask
'where is creativity?'
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According to
Csikszentmihalyi creativity
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happens in the interaction
between a persons thoughts
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and in the
socio-cultural context
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in which these thoughts occur.
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That means creativity
is systemic rather than
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an individual phenomenon.
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In this model creativity
can be observed
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in the interrelations
of a system.
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This system has 3
central features:
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A creative idea must be
understandable to others
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in a domain; for
example mathematics
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is a domain just as architecture
or fine arts are domains
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Creativity must be confirmed
by experts in the field;
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that is the gatekeepers
to the domain
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Creativity must be introduced
back into the cultural domain
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in which it belongs to
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In this model creativity is
an act, or an idea or product
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that changes an existing domain.
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Behind this simple idea
is a very complex process.
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Our social and
cultural environment
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plays a critical role in
validating a creative act
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or idea.
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Take for example the
merchant city Florence
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during the fifteenth century.
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Throughout this period there was
an exceptionally large number
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of influential artists
creating remarkable art.
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One could mistakenly
assume that it
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was mere coincidence for
all these artists to working
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in Florence at the same
time in the same place.
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However, there were numerous
cultural and political
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conditions that aligned to give
rise to this unique situation.
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For example, ancient
Roman building techniques
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had recently been rediscovered
which fuelled innovation
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in architecture and art.
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This came at a
time when Florence
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was an extremely rich merchant
city and the surrounding
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city-states envied
Florentine wealth
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and its powerful
merchants and politicians.
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It was in this heady atmosphere
of innovation, wealth
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and political uncertainty that
bankers, churchmen and heads
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of guilds established Florence
as the most beautiful city
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in Christendom.
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To achieve this they
commissioned artists
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to create an astonishing
number of artworks
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in a very short period of time.
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The surge of creative activity
that occurred in Florence
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during this time
was made possible
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by a unique
constellation of factors
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in the history of
human enterprise.
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The French philosopher
Pierre Bourdieu
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refers to this socio-cultural
formation of creativity
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as belonging to a field
of cultural production.
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For Bourdieu the
creative process
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must take into
account not only those
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who create the work of
art, but also the people
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and the institutions
which participate
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not only in the production
of the value of the work
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but in the belief in the
value of the work itself.
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In this, it is not simply the
work itself that is creative
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but the value
placed on the work.
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And it is this value that
determines its status
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as creative.
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The value system itself
is not creative per se;
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creativity operates within an
institutionalised value system.
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Needless to say that in
the twenty-first century
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creativity operates in the
institutionalised value system
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mediated by computers
and computation.
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